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The  Creoles  gf-History' 


•A  N  D- 


vT:He;cp,eoles>oe-romai[ce. 

hew;  OBLBAlSrr;, 

-B  Y 

HON.- PH^RLES  vGAY^^i^RE, 

'      .       I.      ■  "    ,  '  "  ^"->—  -I  '    ".Ml!;  -   , 

-  *■      ■  .       C   K.  KOPiUN«|   rUBLf»M»»,.«0  ST.  CHI ''.t.»^  iT. ,"  W,  O. 


^ 


^ 


'^'V 


,..:■,  ThrCreoles  of  History^ 


•AND- 


,;1JIE  CpOLES  OF  ROMAliCE. 


S£LIYI;E£D  IH  the  hall  of  THB  TULANB  IJSIY£&SITY, 

^''  ''''     •  HEW  OELEAKS,  :':"*•  ■'''  "-^    - ' 

BY 

HON.  CHARLES  GAYARR]^,       '; 
•  ON  THE  astii  OF  %A.r»i^iij,   laas. 


c«  B.  Morwn*,  puaLMHsm,  to  %t.  cm*<(lb«.«t.,  n,  o. 


-*   -•    X"     ^ 


Reproduced  by  DUOPAGE  process 
in  the  United  States  of  America 


MICRO  PHOTO  Division 
Bell  &  Howell  Company 

Cleveland  12,  Ohio 


r3Bo 

The  Creoles  of  History 

The  Creoles  of  Romance, 


LfulicM  ami  (icnth'mrn : 

In  ovny  imtiiMi  tlir  liuiiiaii  lini^iin;:^  lins  inoilitird  itNt^U'  in 
tlio  rourH4M»t' tunc.  Tln^  M)M*]linji;  und  pronnnriiition  of*  nniny 
wohIm  hiivo  Hnin;;(Ml ;  tlnMr  original  nnsinin^  Iuih  riMMpuMitly 
lHH>onnM>l).s('niv  and  niiHappliiMl.  lint  few  havt'  met  h«>  strik- 
Uiff  \\  tranHtornuitinn  iih  the*  wonl  rnoUo  in  SpuniMli,  and  crvuh 
in  Frendi,  at  loast  in  these  Unite<l  States,  if  not  in  any  other 
l)art  of  the  worhl ;  for  it  eonveys  to  tiie  immense  niajority  of 
tiie  Amerieuus  of  An«;to-Saxon  orip:in  a  meaning;:  that  is  the 
very  reverse  of  its  ]>rimitive  si^nilieation.  Witliont  ;roin;j: 
into  a  Unirned  etymohi^ricai  investigation  ab(nit  it,  1  will  eon- 
tent  myself  with  stating  that,  aectntlin;:  to  the  <1etiuitions 
pven  by  the  dictionaries  of  the  French  and  Spanish  Aeailc- 
niies,  which,  as  to  lan^ua;;e,  are  a«  of  mnch  final  anthonty  as 
the  Snprenie  (.'onrt  of  the  United  States  in  nniiters  of  law, 
Creole  n>eans  the  issue  of  Enropean  parents  in  Spanish  or 
French  eoloiiies. 

It  was  first  invented  by  the  Simniards  to  distinjrnish  their 
children^  natives  ot  their  con<pu*red  colonial  possessions,  from 
the  oritrinal  natives  whom  thev  found  in  those  newly  dis- 
coveix'd  re^^ions  of  tlu>  e;irMi.  Criolh  was  tlerive<l  from  tlu^ 
verb  crlar  (create),  and  used  only  to  desi;>:nati^  the  Spanish- 
created  natives,  who  were  not  to  l>e  confonnde<l  with  the 
al)orij;ines — with  iH'in^rs  of  an  unknown  ori;rin  —  with  the 
mahopiny-tinte<l  small  fry  of  GwVs  creation.  Therefore  tojii* 
a  criollo  was  to  iwssess  u  sort  of  title  of  iionor — a  title  which 
could  only  Iw  tJie  birthri;:ht  of  the  sui)erior  white  race.  Tliis 
wonl,  by  an  easy  transition  becoming  creule^  from   the  verb 


V.     294 


er^^  wft8  mlopted  by  the  French  for  the  same  pur|>ose — tJiat 
IB,  to  ineairor  signify  a  white  human  being  created  in  their 
colonies  of  Africa  and  America— a  native  of  European  ex- 
traction, whose  origin  was  known  and  whose  superior  Cauca- 
sian blowl  was  never  to  l>e  assimilated  to  the  baser  liquid  that 
ran  in  the  veins  of  the  Indian  and  African  native.  This  ex- 
]»lains  why  one  of  that  privileged  class  is  proud  to  this  day  of 
calling  himself  a  Creole,  and  clings  to  that  appellation. 

Now  that  I  have  from  unquestioiiiible  authorities  explained, 
a»;0  I  hoi)e  to  the  satisfaction  of  this  audience,  the  original 
meaning  of  the  word  Creole,  I  ask  your  i)ermi8sion,  ladies  and 
gentlemen,  to  call  your  attention  to  the  Creoles  of  Louisiaiui 
in  particular. 

The  exploring  exi)edition8  of  Hernando  Do  Soto  in  1539,  of 
Joliet  and  Marquette  in  1073,  and  of  La  Salle  in  1682,  lett 
4>ehind  them  no  Creoles.  Those  heroic  adventurers  founded 
no  colony,  either  Fi-ench  or  Spanish,  and  had  with  them  no 
white  woman.  The  tirst  colonists  date  from  1G09,  when  two 
brothers,  Iberville  and  Bienville,  Canadians  of  noble  birth 
and  distinguished  officers  of  the  navy  of  France,  formed  a 
settlement  in  Ijouisiana.  From  that  time  to  a  later  one  there 
were  «i>  difterent  classes  of  i>eople  in  the  colony  :  the  Euro- 
l»ean — the  Creole,  or  the  issue  of  European  parents — the  pure 
Indian — the  Metis,  or  Mestizo,  a  cross  luitween  the  white  and 
the  Indian — the  Grilfe,  proceeding  from  the  African  and  the 
Iiulian — the  Mulatto,  from  the  white  and  African.  Gradually 
these  varieties  crystalized  into  only  two  elements  of  popula- 
tion— the  Knroi>eans  and  the  Creoles  constitutintr  one  element 
(the  white;;  the  othi*r^  »*nilinu'infr  >vl»it  is  kuown  under  tl|e 
general  appellation  of  blacky  or  colored,  |»eople,  who  hadj], 
much  ijitj'H"''  HoiMiil  standing,  and  no  |M)litical  status  what- 
ever. From  the  very  lH>ginning  to  the  late  war  of  secession, 
the  strongest  line  of  <lemarcation — 1  may  say  an  impassable 
one — was  kept  up  l>etwcen  what  may  l)e  calle<l  these  two 
halves  of  the  population,  and  not  the  slightest  cause  or  pr<»- 
text  was  ever  given  for  confounding  the  one  with  the  other. 

When  the   first  Creole  of  [^>uisiana  was  born,  that  is,  the 


f 


first  uative  of  pure  wliitejjloot^  Governor  Bienville  .ind  Coni- 
missary  Salmon  thon<jlit  it  an  event  snfticiently  important  to 
make  it  the  Rubjcct  of  a  joint  dispatch  to  the  French  jjovern- 
inent.     His  name  was  Clande  Jonsset,  and  he  was  the  son  ot  a 
Canadian,  who  was  a  small  trader  in  Mobile.    The  word  creole^ 
in  tlie  conrse  of  time,  was  so  extended  as  to  apply,  not  merely 
to  children  lK)rn  of  European  parentHy  bnt  also  to  animals,  veg- 
etables and  fruits,  and  to  everything  produced  or  manufac- 
tured in  Ijouisiana.    There  were  Creole  horses,  creole  cattle, 
ci'eole  eggs,  creole  corn,  creole  cottonade,  etc.    The  negroes 
born  within   her  liniits  were  Creoles  to  distinguish  them  from 
the  imported  Africans,  and  from  those  who,  long  after,  were 
brought  from  the  United  Statej*.     It  is  iujpossible  to  compre- 
hend how   so  many  intelligent   peoph*  should   have  so   com- 
l»letely  reversed  the  meaning  of  the  word  vr€oh\  when  any  (#ne 
of  the  numerous  <lictionaries  within   their  easy  re«ach  conhl 
have  given   them  coiTect  information  on  the  subject.     What 
could    have   led    to   such    a    delusion    in   the    ])ublic  mind  ? 
Whence  the  source  of  so  strange  an  error?    The  labor  n^i^es- 
sary  to  gratify  curiosity  on  that  jmint  might  l»e  ]»rofitless,  and 
the  fullest  investigation    might  not,  after  all,  solve  the  i)rob- 
lem.    But  it  is  imi>ortant  to  correct  the  error  itself,  whatever 
may  be  the  ditHculty,  or  even  imiiossibility  of  finding  out  itH 
cause.      It  has  l)ecome  high    time   to  demonstrate   that  the 
Creoles    of    Louisiana,    whose   number  to-ilay   may    ap]M-ox- 
imately  l>e  e8timate<l   at  250,000  souls,  have  not,  because  of         / 
the  name/  they  War,  a  particle  of  African    blood   in  their      y 
veins,  and  this  is  what  I  believe  to  have  clearly  e.^ablisluMl. 

It  nmy  be  desirable  now  that  I  shouhl  show  what  was  the 
ancestry  of  those  Creoles.  I  will  proceed  to  peifonn  that  task. 
The  first  settlement  was  made  at  Biloxi  by  (Canadians  in 
1C99.  They  were  people  o(  high  and  h>w  degree.  The  chiefs 
were  educated  and  refined ;  «on»e  of  their  followers  were  coarse 
and  illiterate.  It  d(K*8  not  a]>peartliat  there  was  any  white 
woman  among  them.  In  1704  there  was  another  settlement 
at  Mobile,  and  in  that  same  year  one  of  the  menibers  of  the 
French  cabinet   wrote  to  Governor   Bienville,  **  that  His  Maj- 


esty  80iit  twenty  girU,  carefully  selected,  of  induHtrious 
liabitH,  Hkillful  ut  work;  of  exemplary  virtue  and  piety,  and 
destined  to  be  married  to  Canadian  settlers  and  others  of  the 
same  class,  in  order  that  the  colony  be  established  on  a  solid 
foundation."  In  1705  there  came  twenty-three  resjKfCtable 
;;irls  escorted  by  three  priests  and  two  nuns,  which  girls  were 
to  be  married,  not  to  officers,  not  to  gentlemen,  but  to  dis- 
charged soldiers,  tillers  of  the  soil,  mechanics  and  laborers  of 
all  sorts.  There  came  also  on  the  same  ship,  not  bandits,  not 
convicts,  but  seventy-five  soldiers.  Thus  far  there  is  nothing 
so  impure  as  what  is  mentioned  in  certain  works  of  fiction 
that  have  l>een  acceptinl  as  historical. 

In  170(}  Hienville  wrote  to  the  home  government:  **That 
most  of  the  women  in  the  colony  were  Parisians.'*  1  beg  this 
assembly  not  to  forget  this  fact,  and  therefore  not  to  give  im- 
i)licit  faith  to  mnlicious  compositions  which  repivsent  those 
Parisian  mothers  jis  having  be<|ueathed  to  their  children  a 
jargon  that  no  Frenchnum  could  understand. 

i\\  order  to  demonstrate  that  the  French  otticers  did  not^  as 
a  rule,  choose  their  wives^^as  asserted  by  a  romancing  libeller, 
ainong^  womeii^of  ill-fai'ie,  and  not  even  among  the  virtuous 
ones  of  a  rank  inferior  to  theirs,  1  quote  a  letter  from  the 
woman  who  hild  In  charge  the  "  cart»tully  selected  aiul  pious 
girls '^  sent  by  Louis  XIV,  as  already  stated.  She  wrote  in 
170(5  to  one  of  the  King's  ministers  at  Versailles,  "  that  Major 
de  Hoisbriant,  who  commanded  at  Mobile,  had  l>een  disposed 
to  marry  her,  but  that  he  had  been  prevented  from  <loing  so 
by  M.  de  I\jenville  and  his  brother,''  who  ]>rol)ably  thought 
that  it  was  a  dis]>araging  match,  whereupon  she  remarks, 
with  refi*eshing  simplicity,  "  therefore,  Monseigneur,  your 
excellency  will  see  that  M.  dc  Bienville  lias  not  the  necessary 
qualifications  to  govern  this  country.'* 

The  fact  is  that  it  was  a  neies.sary  qualification  for  the  ruler  of 
the  colony,  at  that  time,  to  Im»  by  temperament  disposed  to  en- 
courage marriages,  rather  than  check  them,  piirticularly  wIkmi 
thei-e  were  as  yet  but  two  families  in  tlie  province.  No  native 
of  French   descent  had  yet  made   his  i»pp«»arance,  the  desired 


Creole  was  still  absent — and  under  such  circumstances  ilovei- 
uor  Bienville  opposed  a  marriage !  This  was  an  evident  infrac- 
tion of  sound  policy.  The  French  government,  however,  paid 
no  attention  to  the  lady's  denunciation  of  Bienville's  peculiar 
disqualification  to  be  the  governor  of  a  country  whose  first 
want  was  population.  But  the  sagacity  of  her  sex  was  not  at 
lault  on  that  occasion ;  for,  subsequently,  Bienville  quarrelled 
with  Governor  de  Lamothe  Cadillac,  who  i)€i'secutcd  him  for 
refusing  to  marry  his  daughter;  and,  furthermore,  Bienville, 
with  wicked  iH»rlinacity,  remained  a  confirmed  bachelor 
through  his  very  long  life. 

In  1713  Commissary  Duclos  wrote  to  the  Ministry  that 
twelve  girls  who  had  lately  arrived  were  undoubtedly  virtu- 
ous, but  extremely  ugly.  "  We  have,**  he  said,  succeede<l  in 
l>rocuring  luisbands  for  two  of  thenj ;  it  will  l>e  ditlicult  to 
get  rid  of  the  rest.  We  shall  do  our  best  as  soon  as  possible. 
Our  Canadian  coureum  de  hoin^  ou  voyogcrn  (travelers  thiough 
forests  anil  the  wilderness)  are  likely  fellows,  and  want  wives 
08  goo<l  looking  as  themselves.  Th**y  want  less  virtue  and 
more  l)eauty.''  1  confess  that  this  lK*gins  to  siivor  badly,  but 
I  show  my  candor  in  not  concealing  the  truth.  It  must  be 
observed,  however,  that  this  applies  only  to  a  certain  class  of 
men  from  whom  much  delica<'y  is  not  to  \w.  expected. 

In  1714  Governor  de  Lamothe  Cndillmr  tidviKPil  rli«*  Fiy^.l! 
government  to  send,  if  possible,  women  of  a  higher  order, 
wlio  should  be  qualified  to  marry  officers  and  such  colonist,^ 
as  were  educated  and  retlned.  This  dispatch  shows  conclu- 
sively  that  the  French  officers  could  not  have  In^en  disposed 
to  degrade  themselves  in  their  conjugal  alliances,  as  compla- 
cently published  with  unaccountable  malignity  in  a  recent 
work.  Other  evidences  of  this  kind  abound,  but  to  bring 
them  all  out  would  exhaust  the  ])atience  of  this  audience. 

W^hilst  the  destinies  of  Louisiana  w^ere  in  the  hands  of  the 
Company  of  the  Indies,  the  famous  financier  Law  sent  to  that 
colony,  at  ditlerent  time^,  a  very  large  number  of  honest 
German  agriculturists.  The  last  of  them,  numbering  two 
l.undred  ami  fifty,  came  in  1721,  under  the  command  of  Chev- 


6 

alier  cVArensboarg,  a  Swede,  who  had  distingiiiBhed  himself 
in  the  service  of  his  king,  Charles  XII,  and  to  whom  that 
monarch  had  presented  a  sword  as  a  testimonial  of  his  esteem. 
That  sword  was  long  kept  as  a  relic  in  his  family.  The  de- 
scendants of  those  immigrants,  of  conrse,  were  Creoles.  They, 
in  the  long  rnn  of  time,  forgot  everj'  word  of  German  that 
they  ever  knew,  and  spoke  no  other  langnage  than  French — 
real  French — not  a  hybrid  jargon. 

in  1731  the  white  population  of  Louisiana  was  about  6000 
souls,  and  the  black  2000.  It  had  already  become  necessary 
in  1724  to  define  and  establish  permanently  the  status  of  both 
the  whites  and  blacks.  Gov.  Bienville,  in  the  name  and  by 
the  authority  of  the  King,  promulgated  the  **  Black  Code,** 
which  remained  the  law  of  the  land  during  one  hundi*ed 
years  of  colonial  existence  under  the  French  and  Spanish 
governmenfS^and  continued  long  in  force  after  Louisiana  had 
become  a  territory  of  the  United  States,  and  even  one  of  the 
sovereign  members  of  the  Union. 

It  raised  Alpine  heights,  nay,  it  threw  the  Andes  as  a  wall 
between  the  blacks,  or  colored,  and  the  natives  of  France, 
as  well  as  the  natives  of  Louisiana,  or  Creoles.  There  could 
be  no  marriage  between  the  two  races.  [If  a  white  master  had 
a  child  by  a  slave,  that  master  was  to  be  punished  by  the  in- 
fliction of  a  heavy  fine,  and  was  even  liable  to  any  other  ar- 
bitrary punishment  by  a  court  of  competent  Juiisdiction  ac- 
cording to  the  circumntauces  of  the  case.  The  slave  and  chihl 
were  confiscated  and  adjudicated  to  the  hospital  nearest  to 
the  place  where  the  offense  was  committedrj  If  in  violation  of 
law  a  priest  celebrated  a  religious  marriage  between  the  two 
races  that  were  to  be  kept  so  wide  ai)art,  he  was  to  be  severely 
punished.  It  shows  the  horror  of  miscegenation  that  always 
existetl,  aiul  that  was  ]»reservcd  actively  alive  l)etween  the 
superior  race  and  the  inferior  or  abject  one.  The  King  of 
France  also  j>rohibited  any  donation  during  life,  or  by  testa- 
ment, to  l)e  made  by  the  whites  to  free<lnien,  and  to  blacks 
born  free,  and  declared  that  such  donations  would  be  null  and 


void,  ftiul  tliat  the  obje(;t  donateil  would  escheat  to  Romo  iu- 
stitutioii  of  charity. 

In  1749  the  Creoles,  that  is  to  say,  the  white  descendants  of^ 
Euro]>eanK — 1  cannot  rei»eat  it  too  often — had  become  suffi- 
ciently numerous  to  constitute  an  active  element  that  was  to 
be  distinguished  fVom  the  natives  of  France,  the  Indians,  and 
the  negroes,  or  colored  people.  In  that  year,  the  Governor, 
Marquis  of  Vaudreuil,  himself  a  native  or  Creole  of  Canada, 
said  in  an  official  dispatch :  ♦*  It  is  to  be  regretted  that  there 
ai-e  not  more  Creoles.  They  are  the  best  men  to  fight  the  In- 
dians.^ I  call  the  attention  of  this  audience  to  the  indi.'tput- 
able  fact  that,  at  all  epochs  under  the  French,  Spanish  aud 
American  governments,  the  oft'eirsive  and  <lefensive  forces  of 
Louisiana  never  ceased  to  ho  clearly  enumerated  in  this  pre- 
cise way  or  order:  The  regulars — the  militia,  composed  of 
Eurojieans  and  their  descendants,  called  crco/<?»— the  friendly 
Indians—and  the  iiegroes  or  colored  peojde.  The  negroes  and 
the  Indians  never  were  admitted  into  the  militia;  they  formed  ' 
separate  bodies  that  could  not  and  never  were  amalgamated 
with  the  whites^ 

In  1751  the  Marquis  of  Vaudreuil  i)ublished  an  ordinance 
or  decree,  which,  among  other  articles,  contained  this  one: 
*^  Any  Frenchman  so  infamous  as  to  harl>or  a  black  slave  for 
the  pur]H^se  of  inducing  him  or  her  to  lead  a  scandalous  life, 
shall  be  whipped  by  the  public  executioner,  and  without 
mer^y  sentenced  to  the  galleys  for  life."  This  does  not  look 
much  like  a  dis]»osition  to  encourage  the  commingling  of 
whiter  and  blacks. 

Before  the  French  revolution  of  1789,  young  men  of  gentle 
birth  were  frequently  admitte<l  into  the  army  as  volunteers  to 
l>e  trained  to  the  military  )>rofession,  with  the  well  founded 
l»rosi>ect  of  having  their  shoulders  soon  decorated  with  epau- 
lets. In  the  mean  time  they  were  favored  with  pay  and  ra- 
tions, and  were  designated  under  the  name  of  cadets.  In 
connection  with  this  usage,  Michel  de  la  Kouvilliere,  the 
French  Commissary,  and  the  official  next  iu  dignity  and 
lH)wer  to  the  Governor,  eom])lains  in  one  ok  his  dispatches  of 


8 

the  abuse  of  this  privilege  by  the  Marquis  of  Vaudreuil.  He 
informs  the  Ministry'  **  that  the  Governor  appointed,  as  cadets 
in  the  French  troops,  boys  of  fifteen  months  to  six  years  old/ 
This,  if  true,  was  evidently  wrong;  but  it  shows  this,  which 
is  to  my  imrpose — that  those  infant  bi>ys  were  of  course  Cre- 
oles, that  they  were  white,  and  even  of  gentle  blood,  and  uot 
the  sons  of  low  and  immoral  women. 

A  certain  well  known  writer  has  disseminated  the  belief 
that  the  French  oflftcers  of  that  epoch,  who  most  of  them 
were  nobles,  for  the  very  good  reason  that  it  was  very  difti- 
cult  for  plebeians  to  be  commissioned  in  preference  to  aspir- 
ants of  that  privileged  class,  were  so  low  and  degraded  in 
tastes  and  habits  that,  with  sui)ine  forgetfulness  of  their 
rank,  they  chose  their  wives  among  Indian  squaws  and  the 
house  of  correction  girls  of  France,  and,  what  is  more 
sti-auge,  that  they  were  exceedingly  proud  of  what  they  had 
done.  To  this  modern  slanderer  I  oppose  the  testimony  ot  a 
living  witness  of  that  distant  epoch.  The  French  Commissary, 
Michel  de  la  liouvilliere,  in  an  official  dispatch  complains,  not 
of  any  base  humility,  not  of  too  improper  condescensions  on 
the  part  of  the  officers,  but,  on  the  contrary,  denounces  their 
towering  juide.  He  writes:  "Who  says  officer  says  all. 
AVhen  that  word  officer  is  pronounced  everybody  must 
tremble.  Whenever  any  one  of  these  gentlemen  has  any 
difficulty  with  any  civilian,  he  never  foils  to  exclaim,  */)o  you 
knoic^  sir,  that  you  are  npeaking  to  an  officer  t  ^  and  should,  by 
chance,  the  case  come  before  me,  the  officer  always  addresses 
me  in  these  words:  *  IWrn/,  sir!  How  (Jared  this  complainant 
thus  speak  to  an  officer j  or  thus  to  act  toicanls  an  officer  V  ^  This 
is  not  the  tone  of  men  who  were  so  low  as  to  be  fond  of  marry- 
ing squaws,  negroes  and  French  i>rostitute  jail  birds  ! 

It  was  under  the  administration  of  the  Marquis  of  Vau- 
dreuil  that  sixty  girls  who  had  been  as.-^ertaineil  to  be  virtu- 
ous were  transported  to  Louisiana  -it  the  expense  of  the  King. 
It  was  the  last  cargo  of  that  kind  of  niercliaiidise  that  was 
brought  to  the  colony.  Those  girls  were  given  in  marriage 
to  sohliers  whose   time  was  out,  and  to  whom   concessions  of 


9 

land  were  made.  Each  couple  was  supplied  with  a  cow  and 
calf,  a  rooster  and  five  hens,  a  gun,  an  ax  and  a  spade,  and 
for  three  years,  dating  from  the  first  day  of  their  settlement, 
they  were  furnished  with  a  certain  quantity  of  powder,  shot, 
and  see<ls.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that,  in  return,  they  pro<luced  an 
abundant  crop  of  Creoles^  as  was  expected.  The  colony  had 
now  l>een  in  existence  fifty-one  ye:irvS,  and  1  am  not  at  all  dis- 
posed to  conceal  that,  during  that  perio<l  of  time,  some  house 
of  correction  girls  were  trans])orted  to  it  at  different  epochs 
by  the  government,  but  the  colonists  ])rotested  against  it, 
and,  as  far  »\s  can  be  ascertained,  it  does  not  appear,  after  all 
that  the  numl>er  of  thos*»  women  exceeded  one  hundred  and 
sixty.  I  do  not  think  that  it  is  so  bad  a  showing,  and  it  is 
])robable  that  there  are  not  many  colonies,  either  ancient  or 
modern,  that  have  a  much  better  record.  No  new  country 
hna  ever  been  stmrked  with  none  but  entirely  virtuous  and 
refined  i>eo]>le,  and,  even  in  the  oldest,  vice  occui)ies  but  too 
large  a  space.  There  is  everywhere  an  inevitable  compound 
of  the  bad  and  the  good,  and  it  is  not  fair  to  Judge  of  the 
character  of  a  whole  imputation  from  some  of  the  peculiarities 
of  its  component  imrts.     So  be  it  for  Louisiana. 

In  1754,  un<ler  the  administration  of  (lovernor  Kerlerec, 
some  very  excellect  families  from  Lorraine  emigrated  to 
Ijouisiana,  and  in  1705,  there  began  to  come  a  very  large 
number  of  those  Acadiana  who  had  been  expelled  from  their 
native  country  by  the  English.  They  were  very  simple  and 
honest  people,  of  unmixed  white  blood,  and  their  descendants 
are  to  be  found  all  over  the  State,  wh-^re  many  of  them  have 
acquired  wealth  and  risen  to  the  highest  offices.  Thus  far  it 
is  impossible  to  imagine  by  what  process  of.  ratiocination  any 
human  mind  could  arrive  at  the  conclusion  that  the  Creole 
population  of  Louisiana  must  be  looke<l  upon  as  being  colored, 
and  as  having  their  veins  tainted  with  African  blood. 

So  intense  at  all  times  was  the  aversion  among  the  Creoles 
to  associate  with  the  colored  people  that  in  1707,  the  Marchio- 
ness of  Abnulo,  having  come  from  Peru  to  marry  the  Spanish 
(lovonior,  Don  Antonio  de  TTlloa,  to  whom  she  had  been  afll- 


10 

anced,  and  having  brought  with  her  some  female  Peniviau 
friends  whose  complexion  was  yel!ow,  the  Creole  ladies,  taking 
them  for  colored  women,  refused  to  visit  the  Mai-chionv^ss,  be- 
ciiuse,  as  they  said,  she  kept  company  with  mulatresses. 

Ulloa,  having  been  driven  away  by  the  rebels  of  Louisiana, 
wrote  from  Havana  to  the  Spanish  government  that  his  ex- 
pulsion was  caused  by  the  hostility  of  the  descendants  of  four 
Canadians  who  had  settled  in  the  colony.  Of  course  these 
descendants  were  ci*eoles,  and  this  shows  that  there  Ix^gan 
to  be  important  personages  in  that  class  of  the  population. 

Count  CVReilly,  after  having  quelled  the  rebellion  in  17C9, 
bestowed  on  Creoles  some  of  the  highest  offices,  civil  and  mili- 
tary. I  invite  your  attention  to  the  census  which  he  ordered 
to  be  taken  of  the  population  of  New  Orleans  in  1770.  Ob- 
serve how  distinct  the  Creoles  are  kept  from  the  colored  people 
in  that  census :  Whites,  1803 ;  slaves,  1223 ;  free,  of  pure  Af- 
rican blood,  31 ;  of  mixed  blood,  68— total,  3187.  Count 
O'Ueilly  confirmed  and  maintained  the  "  Black  Code,''  which 
established  such  a  barrier  of  adamant  between  the  African 
and  (Caucasian,  and  showed  in  every  possible  way  that  he 
knew  better  than  to  (;onfound  the  Creoles  with  the  colored 
I)eople.  Unzaga,  his  successor,  was  as  well  informed,  an<l 
married  a  Creole,  who  showed  iH.Tself  worthy  of  her  high  posi- 
tion in  Louisiana,  and  of  her  subsequent  one,  when  her  hus- 
band was  appointed  Captain  General  of  the  province  of 
Caracas. 

Count  Bernardo  de  Galvez  j^ucceeded  General  Unzaga  in 
1777.  In  1780  war  Inking  declared  between  Spain  and  (ireat 
Britain,  he  took,  in  a  rapid  campaign,  Mancliac,  Baton  Kouge, 
Natchez,  Mobile  and  Pensacola,  then  in  the  possession  of  the 
English.  In  the  narration  which  he  nuikes  of  his  military 
operations,  he  enumerates  his  forces  in  a  very  discriminating 
manner — the  regulars;  the  militia,  composiKl  only  of  whites; 
a  few  American  volunteers;  a  body  of  Indians,  an^l  a  luMly  of 
<'olored  troops,  wl"»  at  the  time  were  not,  and  never,  at  any 
time  since,  were  admitted  into  the  n;ilitia,  In^cause  it  was  the 
]nivilege  of  the  whites  alone  to  constitute  the  militia.     Count 


11 

de  Galvcz,  like  Uuzaga,  inarritHl  a  Creole  whilst  governor;  his 
only  child,  a  Creole,  married  an  European  prince.  Galvez  died 
Viceroy  of  Mexico,  like  his  father. 

In  1785  Miro  succeeded  Galvez,  and  like  him,  marrie<l  a 
Creole.    A  singular  infatuation  on  the  part  of  those  men,  and 

'  of  almost  all  the  Si)anisli  officers  and  dignitaries  of  high  rank 
who  came  to  Louisiana  during  a  i)eriod  of  about  thirty-four 
years,  to  invariably  ally  themselves  to  so  abject  a  impulation 
as  is  described  by  a  certain  literary  dime  speculator — a  i)opu- 
lation  whose  best  men,  according  to  the  same  authority,  are 
bullies,  knaves  and  fools,  with  the  brains  of  a  jackass,  the 
heart  of  an  alligator,  and  th*»  tongue  ot  a  gibberish  monkey — 
and  whoso  l)est  women,  born  of  lawful  wedlock,  are  inferior 
in  every  respect,  to  the  colored  biistard  issue  of  libertinism 
and  concubinage!  Governor  Miro  seems  to  have  entertained 
on  that  subject,  as  !  will  show,  views  very  different  from  those 
of  a  mo<lern  sentimentalist,  who,  being  color  blind  himself, 
wants  to  make  the  worhl  l>elieve  that  black  is  white  and 
white  is  black. 

Shortly  after  entering  upon  the  duties  of  his  office  he  had  a 
census  taken  ot  the  free  colored  population  of  Louisiana.  It 
amounted  to  1100.  He  issued  a  proclaniation  in  which  he  de- 
clared that  the  idleness  of  free  negro,  mulatto,  and  quadroon 
women,  resulting  from  their  living  on  incontinence  and  liber- 
tinism, must  no  longer  be  tolerated  ;  that  they  must  renounte 
their  mo<le  of  living  and  betake  themselves  to  honest  labor. 
He  proclaims  his  intention  to  have  them,  if  they  neglect  his 

'  admonitions,  sent  out  of  the  province,  warning  them  that  he 
will  consider  their  excessive  attention  to  dress  as  an  evidence 
of  misconduct.  He  further  complains  that  the  distinction 
which  had  been  established  concerning  the  head-dress  of 
colored  females  and  white  women  was  disregarded,  and  an- 
nounced that  he  would  have  it  enforced.  He  forbids  the  col- 
ored women  to  wear  plumes  and  jewels  and  directs  them  to 
have  their  hair  bound  in  a  kerchief.  Lastly,  he  torbids  them 
"  to  have  nightly  assemblies.'^  This  is  a  discrimination  with 
n  vengeance  l>etween  the  colored  people  and  the  Creoles,  from 


12 

wliose  ranks  he  hml  taken  liiA  wife !  A  m^rimonial  example 
followwl  by  one  of  the  last  governors,  Oayoso  ile  Lenios. 

In  1803,  wlion  the  French  took  teni]>omry  i)ossesslon  of 
Lonisiana  by  vlrtne  of  the  cossion  of  it  nuule  by  Spain,  the 
lirefect,  Laiissat,  who  represented  the  French  government, 
appointed  Belle<*liasse,  a  creole,  commander-inchief,  with  the 
gnule  of  colonel,  of  all  the  militia  of  the  city  and  of  all  the 
free  colored  companies,  showitig  that  they  were  distinct  fnnn 
the  militia,  exclusively  composed,  as  1  have  idready  stated,  of 
whites ;  and  by  a  special  proclamation  he  nniintained  in  fall 
fon;e  the  "  Black  Code,''  promulgated  in  1724,  in  which  wjis 
shown  such  a  horror  of  miscegenation  and  an  uncompromising 
determination  to  keep  as  far  apart  as  the  antipodes  the  two 
races  destined  to  live  side  by  side  on  the  same  soil,  without 
the  possibility  of  a  fusion  of  their  social  relations.  This  was 
done,  particularly  to  appease  the  alarms  of  the  Creoles,  who 
lia<l  iMicome  attached  to  the  Spanish  government  and  feannl 
tlie  new  fangled  ideas  then  germinating  in  France  about  the 
equality  and  fraternity  of  all  men  without  distinction  of  color 
and  race.  Evidently  the  natives  of  Louisiana  who,  during 
more  than  one  hundre<l  years,  showed  such  hostility  to  any 
social,  civil,  nulitary  and  political  association  with  people  of 
African  descent,  cannot,  by  any  logical  construction  of  lan- 
guage an<l  facts,  be  sui)posed  to  admit  that  they  are  colored 
when  they  openly  call  themselves  creolcH. 

Monette,  an  American  author,  says  in  his  History  of  the 
Valley  of  the  Mississippi,  that  on  the  eve  of  the  ceremonies 
tliat  were  to  attend  the  transfer  of  Louisiana  from  France  to 
tlie  United  States,  a  number  of  enterprising  y<mng  Americans 
associated  themselves  in  a  volunteer  comiwniy  under  the  lead- 
ership of  Daniel  Tlark,  the  consul  of  the  United  States,  to 
l>reserve  order  in  the  city  of  New  Orleans,  and  were  joined  by 
a  number  of  imtrioiic  French  creolen.  Will  anybody  InOieve 
that  those  creoh's  whom  the  Americans  thus  pressed  to  their 
bosom  witli  fraternal  embrace  were  colore<l  ? 

The  colonial  inefect,  Laussat,  rei)resentative  of  France,  and 
the   Marquis  Uasa  Calvo  representative  of  Spain,  vied  with 


each  other  hi  tho  RpleuclIU  i'cKtlvltlc*  they  ^avo  iit  the  ej^oeh 
of  the  cohkIoii,    A  Freiichiniui  who  wivh  present  fnvorM  uh  with 
n  deMTiptioii  oi  tlieiii  in  iv  \)ook  whhHi  he  ]>ubliHhe(l  on  the      ^ 
HubJiH't.    **The  LoniHiunu  huUeH,*^  ho  Htiys,  meaning  the  rre- 
oU>M,  for  there  were  hardly  any  other  in  the  eoh>ny  at  that 
time,  **  appeared  with  a  nnijrnitleenee  that  wan  a  eanne  of  an- 
toniMhnient,  and  lui^^lit  have  been  compared  witli  any  eftortn  ot* 
that  Mort  even  in  tlie  i>rinci])al  eitien  of  France.    Tlie  hidli'M 
who  nuvy  JnMtlybenahl  to  be  nwnarliabh^  for  their  Inibltnal 
gravity,  aro  generally  tall  and  exfpiihitely  nhaped.    'J1ie  ala- 
banter  whitenenM  of  their  com]>le.\ioM,  which  waH  adniiralily 
net  oft  Uy  their  li^ht  drcMHeH,  adorned  with  tlowi*rH  antV  rich 
enibroideiy,  pave  a  fairy-like  ai)i)earan<'e  to  thone  f«»MtiviticH." 
ThiH  elegance  alwayn  prevailed  in  New  Orleann  tVoni  the  be« 
ginning;  of  itH  exiHtence  as  theca]utal  of  the  colony.    In  1727, 
.Magdelene  llachard,  one  of  the  UrHullne  KnnH  who  came  to 
Hcttlo  in  that  town,  tlniH  dcMcribcM  it  in  a  private  letter  ad- 
drcHHcd  to  luT  father  at  Kouen  :  ♦♦  I  can  aHMore  you,  my  dear 
father,  that  1   hardly  realiMe  that  I  am  on  the  bankH  of  the 
MiH8iKHipi»i,  bocauMe  there  Ih  here  an  mnch  mapiitlccnce  and 
politencHM  aM  in  France,    (iold  and  Vfl vet  HtntfK,  with  coHtly 
ribbonH,  are  coninM»nly  UKcd,  althon^h  thfycoHt  three  TlmcH  iim 
•  mnch  aHat  Koncn.^    All  thin  Ih  trne.    The  IndicM  ])owdercd 
their  hair,  roti};ed,  ])ainted  their  cheekn,  ow  which  tliey  wore, 
at  H\)0{H  tastefully  clnmun,  nnmll  patches  of  black  nilk,  called 
inouchcH^  or  "  flies,**  exactly  as  was  done  at  the  court  ot  Ver- 
HaiUo8.    The  gentlemen  sported  the  sword  as  an  evidence  of 
rank,  adorned  themselves  with  lace,  and  some  of  them  had 
diamond    buckles  at  the  knee  and  on  the  shoes.     It  is  re- 
markable that  ever  since  those  days  to  the  present.  French- 
men and  other  foreigners  who  visited  New  ()rleans,  have  al- 
ways said  that,  on  jvcconnt  of  the  rettnement  of  its  society 
and  of  the  language  spoken  in  it,  they  were  more  vividly 
reminde<l  of'  Paris  than  in  any  other  Americaik  city.    I  will 
even  go  iurther  and  say  that  nniny  Frenchmen,  after  some 
residence  here,  have  assured  me  that  they  preferred  living  in 
»w  Orleans  than  in  any  of  the  provincial  cities  of  France. 


14 

LausMt,  in  1803,  in  a  dispatch  to  his  government,  describea 
the  Creoles,  not  aa  colored  men,  bat  aa  the  worthy  deseendantn 
of  the  French.  He  says  "  that  they  are  gentle  and  docile,  bat 
touchy,  proud  and  brave.''    . 

If  the  primary  signification  of  the  word  Creole  be  strictly 
adhere<l  to,  then  there  are  very  few  natives  of  Louisiana  . 
living  who  can,  since  the  cession  of  that  territory  to  the 
United  States,  in  1803,  appropriately  call  themselves  creates^ 
because  they  were  not  born  of  European  parents  in  a  French 
or  Spanish  colony.  Etymologically  speaking,  the  word  Louin- 
ianian  would  be  now  the  correct  one.  But  if  the  world  creole 
is  used  simply  to  designate  the  descendants  of  the  ancient 
French  and  Gpanish  population,  it  may  l>e  considered  as  not 
being  improperly  employed,  and  may  even  be  fondly  cherished 
as  recalling  to  their  memory  that  their  origin  is  traced  back 
to  the  founders  of  the  colony.  In  this  sense  of  the  word  the 
Creoles  are  the  Knickerbockers  of  Louisiana. 

In  1806,  under  the  rdministration  ot  Claiborne,  a  census  was 
taken  of  the  population  of  that  portion  of  Louisiana  known  as 
the  "  Territory  of  Orleaiift,^  of  which  he  was  the  Ooveraonui. 
In-  that  cemms  the  Creoles  and  the  colored  i>eople  are  mentioned 
with  precise  discrmination :  Creoles  13,500 ;  free  colored  3355 ; 
Americans  3500 ;  Europeans  5714 ;  total  26,069.  The  slaves  ' 
wei*e  about  as  numerous. 

In  1809,  Claiborne,  in  a  dispatch  to  the  Secretary  of  State 
at  Washington,  speaks  of  the  Creoles  as  the  white  descendants 
of  the  French,  and  declares  himself  strongly  opposed  to  per- 
mitting  fi*ee  colored  people  to  come  to  Louisiana.  I  will 
not  expatiate  further  on  the  subject.  This  is  enough,  1  be- 
lieve, to  show  historically,  that  thf««  never  wvLSt  any  grtmnd 
for  the  impression  which  has  become  an  incrustation  in  the 
heads  of  a  large  portion  of  the  people  of  the  Unitetl  States, 
that  Creole  means  a  person  having  African  blood  in, his  or  her 
veins.  Whence  this  idea  originated  it  is  impossible  to  im- 
agine, and  it  will  forever  remain  a  matter  of  astonishment. 
Any  dictionary,^if  looked  into,  would  have  corrected  the  mis- 


15 

take,  ami  the  merest  attention  to  facts  of  a  striking  notoriety 
would  have  been  sufficient  to  dissipate  all  doubt. 

Governor  Claiborne  married  successively  two  Creoles.  Gen- 
eral Wilkinson,  commander-inohief  of  the  army  of  the  United 
States,  married  one.  Edward  Livingston,  Senator  of  the 
United  States,  Secretary  of  State,  Minister  Plenipotentiary, 
married  a  Creole.  The  number  of  Americans  from  every  part 
of  the  United  States  who  have  allied  themselves  by  marriage 
to  Creole  families  is  so  large  that  it  cannot  be  calculated.  Dis- 
tinguished men  from  every  European  nation  have  married 
Creoles,  knowing  them  to  be  Creoles  and  frequently  proud 
that  they  were  Creoles,  and  the  Emperor  Napoleon  the  Great 
B|)oke  with  enthusiasm  of  the  inimitable  graces  of  his  Creole 
wife,  the  Empress  Josephine.  The  Creole  women  of  Louisiana 
have  been  much  admired  and  their  merits  fully  appreciated  in 
the  most  polished  courts  of  Europe ;  they  have  entered  the 
mansions  of  the  highest  nobility  with  the  dignifled  footstep  of 
perfect  equality,  and  I  could  fill  up  a  long  list  with  the  hiscor* 
ical  names  of  barons,  viscounts,  counts,  marquises,  dukes  and 
princes,  who  were  happy  to  place  their  coronei:8  on  the  fair 
brows  of  Louisiana's  Creole  daughters.  Have  not  the  watering 
plucsSfe  the  hotels  and  the  private  saloons  of  the  Korth  and 
West  been  crowded  for  the  last  eighty  years  with  our  Creole 
ladies,  to  whom  the  heartiest  welcome  was  tendered  ?  Were 
they  ever  known,  on  any  occasion,  in  any  circumstance,  and 
in  any  place  whatever  on  which  the  sun  shines,  to  conceal  and 
deny  that  they  were  Creoles  ?  Did  they  ever  look  and  act  as 
if  they  had  sprung  from  such  mothers  as  those  women  de- 
scribed by  the  Spanish  Governor  Miro,  whom  he  ordered  to 
abstain  from  wearing  feathers  and  jewels,  and  directed  to 
make  an  honest  living  by  labor,  and  to  tie  a  kerchief  round 
their  bair  1    So  much  for  the  Creole  women. 

Xow  for  the  mea.  They  have  for  years  and  years  filled  with 
credit  the  highest  legislative,  judicial  and  executive  offices  of 
the  State  j  they  have  distinguished  themselvea  in  the  army 
and  navy  of  the  United  States,  and  there  is  no  official  posi- 
tion iu  thfi  Federal  government  to  which  they  have  not  risen, 


>U 


16 

wive  that  of  President  of  the  United  State*-.  In  the  ordinary 
occu)>ation8  of  life,  many,  as  lawrem,  pbysiciaos,  merchants, 
planters,  agriuultnriAts,  have  occupied  conspicnons  positions. 
In  the  mechanical  and  fine  arts,  as  well  as  in  the  sciences,  some 
,  have  obtained  the  most  striking  proficiency. 

Abroad,  more  than  one  Creole  has  risen  to  the  highest  emi- 
nence. The  learned  Jesuit,  Abbe  Viel,  gained  in  Paris  a 
•  literary  celebrity.  Audubon  is  immortal ;  Aubert  Dubayet, 
after  having  faught  for  the  independence  of  the  United  States, 
became  a  member  of  the  National  Assembly  in  France,  and 
its  president,  for  a  fortnight,  lieutenant  genera!,  commander- 
inchiet,  minister  of  war,  ambassador  at  Constantinople;  Bro- 
nier  de  Clouet  became  a  general,  governor  of  one  of  the  pro- 
vinces of  Cuba,  senator  in  Si>ain,  arid  was  created  Count  de 
laFernandina;  Daunoy,  lieutenant  general  in  Spain;  Beluche, 
admiral  in  South  America ;  Villamil,  general  and  ambassador; 
I)eli)it,  one  of  the  most  distinguished  and  successful  literary 
men  in  Paris;  Paul  Morphy,  the  wonderful  chess  player; 
Gottschalk,.  the  famous  pianist  and  comi^oser;  and  lately,  a 
trreole  of  Louisiana  rose  to  l)e  a  member  of  the  French  cabinet. 
This  nomenclature  might  be  considerably  extended. 

The  Creole  poimlation  now  witliin  the  present  limits  of  the 
State  of  Louisiana  may  l)e  estimated  at  250,000.  I  huve 
shown  that  the  Unite<l  States  have  no  cause  to  blush  for  hav- 
ing gathertMl'  them  under  the  star  spangled  banner.  They, 
with  patriotic  xeal,  fought  against  the  English  in  the  war  of 
1814-15,  and  also  in  our  subscciuent  conflict  wMth  Mexico.  Is 
it  not  time  to  do  away  with  the  absunl  notion  that  these 
l>eopln  are  colored,  particularly  when  it  is  so  easy  to  know  the 
truth  on  the  sjibjcct,  an<l  when  it  is  a  sign  of  pro<ligiouM  ignor- 
ance that  such  an  error  should  be  kept  up  in  the  face  of  all  th«< 
eircunistnn<'es  an4l  in  utter  disregard  of  all  the  ta<*ts  which  \ 
have  stated. 

.Another  in>pn*ssion  in  the  United  States,  e(|ually  unjust  and 
aggravating  is,  that  Louisiana  has  originally  been  popu1ate<l 
ehietiy  by  eonvicts,  by  nuMi  aiuKwonien  of  immoml  habits, 
and  sjnung  from  the  most  ignorant  an<l  lawless  class  of  Euro- 


17 

peaii  society.  I  liuve,  1  believe,  demonstrated  that  uoth*ug 
could  be  more  erroneous.  There  never  came  to  Louisiana  anj' 
people  in  reality  worse  than  those  who  are  commonly  disposed 
to  migrate  to  European  colonies.  As  to  the  military  officers 
and  all  the  employes  of  the  government  daring  a  hundred 
years,  they  were  most  of  them,  gentils  hommes^  nobles,  as  their 
names  show,  being  generally  preceded,  among  the  French,  by 
the  aristocratic  prefix ;  de.  Many  were  titled.  They  became 
the  heads  of  families,  and  I  should  not  be  afraid  to  wager 
that,  in  proportion  to  the  ))opulation,  there  are  as  many,  if  not 
more,  i)eople  of  gentle  blood  in  Louisiana  as  any  where  else  in 
America.  The  mere  accident  of  noble  or  plebeian  birth  has 
l)ecome  very  insignificant  in  this  age.  But,  since  the  question 
has  been  raised,  I  say  that  there  is  more  than  one  individual 
among  us,  in  an  humble  position,  particularly  since  the  late 
war,  whose  ancestors  were  knights  who  fought  as  Crusaders 
in  the  fields  of  Palestine ;  and  others  could  prove  that  they 
are  nobles  from  time  immemorial  by  thiB  grace  of  God,  and 
not  by  the  favor  of  any  prince — which,  by  the  by,  is  the  high- 
est degree  of  nobility,  far  above  any  manufactured  mushroom 
ducal  title.  Nevertheless,  Jjouisiana  has  always  been  socially 
the  most  democratic  State  in  the  Union.  The  Creole  popula- 
tion has  always  lacked  self-assertion,  not  to  say  brass.  In 
the  days  of  the  greatest  prosi)erity  there  never  was  displayed 
a  coat  of  arms  on  the  panel  of  any  carriage  by  those  who  had 
the  best  title  to  it,  nor  has  any  one  of  our  families  put  a  livery 
even  on  a  slave,  and  the  poorest  podler  traveling  with  his  box 
on  his  back  never  was  refused  hospitable  admitt.ance  to  the 
princely  niansion  and  table  of  the  wealthiest  planter.  In  no 
country-  was  there  less  of  the  pufied  arrogance  of  wealth  and 
of  the  foolish  pride  of  birth. 

And  this  is  the  i>opulation  which  one  accidentally  bom  in 
its  bosom  and  claiming  by  virtue  of  that  accident  the  right, 
not  only  to  speak  in  the  name  of  Louisiana^  but  also  of  the 
whole  South,  represents  a^  very  little  better  than  the  Yahoos 
in  Gnllivei's  travels  by  Dean  Swift !  I  bog  pardon  of  all  lit- 
erary men  for  associating. the  names  cf  Swift  and  Cable.    It 


18 

is  almost  an  insult  to  the  memory  of  the  former.  But  Dean 
Swift  intenclwl  his  Gulliver's  travels  to  be  only  a  satire,  while 
Mr.  Cable  has  assumeil  to  write  novels  based  on,  and  in  con- 
formity to^  history  or  accepted  tra<litions,  and  purporting  t-o 
be  a  faithful  poilraiture  of  realities.  I  must  admit  that  I 
have  read  only  what  passes  for  the  best  of  his  works — the 
**  Grandissiraes.''  When  that  book  api>eared,  I  remember 
having  read  these  remarks  in  the  Phila<lelphia  Times,  or  some 
other  well  known  paper  of  that  city :  "  Mr.  Cable's  Grandis- 
simes  struck  us  as  excee<lingly  dull,  when  published  in  serials 
in  Scribner's  ^lagazine.  and  it  appeared  to  us  still  more  dull 
when  presented  in  the  heavier  form  of  a  book.  But  its  chief 
value  is  derived  from  its  being  so  minute  and  faithful  a  de- 
scription of  a  peculiar  people  in  the  United  States  with  which 
we  are  so  little  acquainted,  and  to  which  the  author  himself 
belongs.^  I  am  sure  that  this  is  the  sense  of  the  passage  to 
which  I  have  referred,  if  not  its  precise  words.  It  becomes 
therefore  important  for  us  who  may  sufter  from  the  obliquity 
of  the  author's  vision,  and  in  general  tor  all  those  who,  bj' 
|.eruHing  his  works,  may  be  led  into  egregious  errors,  to  as- 
certain if  the  dullness  of  the  writer  is  compensated  by  the 
veracity  of  his  st^-tements,  the  accuracy  of  his  descriptions  or 
appreciations,  and  the  verisimilitude  of  his  creations. 

On  the  threshold  of  the  very  rapid  and  short  review  which 
time  and  your  patience  will  permit  me  to  make  of  only  a  few 
pages  of  the  "  Grandissimes,''  1  call  your  attention  to  one  of 
the  monstrous  absurtlities  that  form  the  tissue  of  a  composi- 
tion in  which  the  audacious  mutilation  of  what  is  truth  in  a 
matter  of  tact  world,  and  the  distortion  of  what  could  pos- 
sibly be  supposed  by  a  sound  mind  to  exist  at  all  in  the  world 
of  probabiliti<*s,  exceeil  nil  ])rec-edents.  If  Mr.  Cable  had  rep- 
resented the  luoAt  distinguished  of  our  creole  families  as  hav- 
ing forgotten  to  8|)eak  French,  and  as  using  only  the  jargon 
whicli  the  negi-oes  had  constructed  out  of  that  language,  this 
invention  would  have  far  exceeded  the  limits  of  those  liberties 
which  fancy  in  its  wildest  flights  may  be  permitted  to  take 
with  common  sens**.     JUit  when  he  makes  them  pn*fer,  not  the 


19 

• 

Freuch,  not  the  Creole  negro  patois^  but  the  broken  English  of 
the  negroes  of  Virginia,  the  Carolinas,  Georgia,  etc.,  the  per- 
version or  depravity  of  his  intellect  becomes  overpowering 
and  incomprehensible.  He  must  have  known  that  this  was 
lmiK)S8ible.  If  he  did  know,  and  how  could  it  be  otherwise, 
why  this  violation  of  truth  ?  If  he  says  that  he  did  not,  he 
admits  himself  to  be  as  ignorant  of  what  he  writes  about,  as 
the  most  uncultivated  donkey  is  about  the  movements  of  a 
planet.  1  will  state  that  I  have  carried  his  famous  novel  to 
intelligent  negroes  who  could  read,  and  not  one  of  them  could 
understand  the  spelling  and  pronunciation  of  the  language 
attributed  to  their  race.  It  seems  to  have  been  a  secret  pos- 
sessed  only  by  the  Grandissime  families  of  1803.  It  had  been 
lost,  but  has  l)een  lately  discovered  by  Mr.  Cable. 

The  story  of  the  **  Grandissimes**  begins  with  a  charity  ball 
given  for  the  relief  of  yellow  fever  patients  in  the  end  of  Sep- 
tenil)er,  1803,  at  a  favorable  moment  when  an  available  spell 
of  cool  weather  had  set  in.  The  best  families  of  New  Orleans 
are  there  assembled.  Here  is  a  specimen  of  the  descriptive 
and  pictui-esque  style  of  the  writer :  "  The  perfumed  air  of  the 
ball-rooai  was  thrilled  with  the  wailing  ecstasy  of  violins.^ 
Acconling  to  the  English  meaning  of  the  word  thrill,  ve  are 
given  to  understand  that  this  wailing  ecstasy  of  the  violins  had 
l>ierced  the  perfumed  air  with  a  sharp  shivering  sensation,  and 
we  logically  infer  that  the  shivering  air  must  have  communi- 
cated its  own  sensation  to  the  whole  assembly  and  consider- 
ably refrigerated  its  cheerfulness.  But  what  sort  of  dances, 
oontradance^  and  waltzes  must  the  violins  have  been  playing 
to  bo  thrown  into  ji  "wailing  ecstasy  f '  If  it  were  possible  to 
unite  together  wailing  and  ecstasy,  it  certainly  would  suit  a 
funeral  l>etter  than  a  ball.  Suddenly,  however,  this  perfumed 
air  that  was  thrille<l  with  the  wailing  ecstasy  of  violins,  warm- 
ing itself  out  of  its  chilled  ox>ndirion,  seems,  in  the  inimitable  lan- 
guage of  the  author,  "to  breathe,  to  sigh,  to  laugh,  while  the 
musicians,  with  dislievcled  locks,  streaming  brows  and  fnri* 
ons  bows,  strike,  draw,  drive,  scatter  from  the  anguished  vio- 
lins a  never-ending  rout  of  screaming  harmonies  P    Surely, 


20 

we  understand  the  terrible  finflferingg  of  tlioAe  agonize<l  vio- 
lins, but  it  is  absolutely  wonderful  that  tlie  assembly,  l>eing 
assailed  "by  this  never-ending  ront  of  screaming  bai monies,'' 
<lid  not  clap  their  hands  to  their  ears,  and  did  not  run  away 
as  fast  as  permitted  by  their  agonized  nerves.  You  may  think, 
perhaps,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  that  you  will  be  spared  a  fur- 
ther exhibition  of  the  torture  of  those  ill-fated  violins.  No ;  a 
little  more  endurance,  if  you  please;  for,  those  instruroentSy 
notwithstanding  their  fits  "of  wailing  ecstasy"  followed  by 
their  "scattering  a  never-ending  rout  of  screaming  harmo- 
nies," would  occasionally  "  burst  into  an  agony  of  laughter." 
Now,  I  can  safely  assure  you  that  Mr.  Cable's  oreoles  are  as 
fantastically  absunl,  as  ridiculously  fanciful,  and  as  glaring 
impossibilities  as  the  screaming  harmonies  of  Mr.  Cable's 
violins. 

While  the  violins  were  cutting  such  antics,  a  rumor  circu- 
lates in  the  ball-room  that  France  had  ceded  Ijouisiana  to  the 
United  States,  and  much  consternation  is  the  result.  At  that 
moment  Mr.  Cable  introduces  to  his  readers  the  head  or  chief 
of  one  of  the  highest  and  most  distinguished  families  of 
Ijouisiana.  His  name  is  Brahmin  Mandarin  Agricola  Fuselier 
de  (irandissime.  This  uncouth  mass  of  vulgar  pomposity  is  ad- 
dicted to  roaring  like  a  lion,  and  a  very  ill-bred  lion  too.  On 
this  occasion  he  roars  more  fieively  than  ever,  and  the  whole 
assembly  becomes  tremblingly  silent.  Then  the  lion,  con- 
descending to  use  human  language,  shouts  that  the  pretended 
treaty  of  cession  is  apocr>'phal,  because  it  contains  no  special 
<*lau8e  for  the  protecition  of  the  family  of  Brahmin  Mandarin 
Agri(jola  Fuselier  de  Grandissime !  So  striking  an  argument 
is  accepted  as  satisfactory  ;  the  public  mind  is  restored  to  its 
usual  tranquillity,  and  dancing  recommences.  Will  you  be- 
lieve, ladies  and  gentlemen,  in  the  iM)ssible  existence  of  such 
an  imbtHjile  i>opulation  f 

There  are  other  conspicuous  i>ersoiiages  in  that  masked 
ball.  One  represents  a  dnigon  of  Bienville  with  a  gilde<l 
cas()ue  and  a  heron's  pluuie,  and  a  Huguenot  JlUe  a  la  caHsette^ 
a  "  Huguenot  casket  girl,"  although  there  never  were  in  Louis- 


21 

iana  such  a  dragon  and  snch  an  imported  Huguenot  girl,  with' 
a  casket,  or  no  casket.  There  is  also  a  woman  in  the  costume 
of  a  monk.  The  dragon  and  the  monk  flirt  togetlier.  If  time 
permitted  me  to  give  a  sample  of  their  conversation,  you  wouhl 
think  it  the  silliest  that  ever  came  out  of  human  lips.  Mr. 
Cable  seems  to  be  aware  of  it,  for  he  calls  it  a  child-like  badi- 
nage.  Why  this  "  child-like  badinage  **  between  these  two 
grown  up  i>er8ons  who  are  destined  to  be  in  the  novel  the 
jnost  refined  and  intellectual  specimens  of  creole  society  t  Is 
it  because  he  wishes  to  intimate  that  Creoles,  irom  the  cradle 
to  the  grave,  ever  remain  in  a  state  of  imbecile  infancy  I  Be 
it  as  it  may  with  his  intentions,  another  peculiarity  with  Mr. 
Cable's  fancy  is  to  make  a  Creole  laugh  whenever  he  or  she 
speaks,  either  to  say  good  morning  or  good  night.  In  two 
short  pages  and  a  half,  printed  in  large  type,  and  relating  this 
crild-like  conversation,  the  word  laugh  is  found  sixteen  times. 
...t  first  the  words  of  the  future  heroine  of  the  novel  "were 
entangled  with  a  musical,  open-hearted  laugh."  An  open- 
hearted  laugh  may  be  musical,  but  as  a  broad,  open-hearted 
laugh  ])recludes  the  possibility  of  uttering  words  at  the  same 
time,  how  can  unuttered  words  be  entangled  with  such  a 
laugh  ?  It  is  immediately  followed  by  another  laugh  "  as  ex- 
ultingly  joyous  as  it  was  high  bred."  It  is  not  easy  to  com- 
prehend from  any  circumstance  mentioned  in  the  book  why 
that  laugh  was  as  exultingly  joyous  as  it  was  high  bred.  Was 
it  exultingly  joyous  because  it  was  high  bred,  or  was  it  high 
bre<l  because  it  was  exultingly  joyous  t  It  would  have  been 
interesting  to  know  from  Mr  Cable  what  are  the  characterist- 
ics of  a  high  bred  laugh. 

Mr.  Cable  describes  the  arrival  of  a  numerous  family  of 
Oerman  immigrants.  One  of  them,  Joseph  Frowenfeld,  of  teu- 
tonic origin,  is  an  American  by  birth.  "  What  a  land  pre- 
sented itself  to  their  eyes  as  they  ciune  up  the  river  T  ex- 
claims  Mr.  Cable.  "  A  land  hung  in  mouruiug,  darkened  by 
gigantic  cypresses,  submerged,  a  laud  of  rei^tiles,  silence, 
shadow  and  decay  P  It  is  to  be  ho;ied  that  this  description 
will  not /all  into  the  hands  of  those  whom  our  State  Boaixl  of 


22 

Iin migration  is  trying  to  attract  to  Louisiana.  Well !  ftft<^' 
having  been  half  clevouied  by  mosquitoes,  the  traveler  reacbe<l 
the  "  hybrid  ^  city  of  New  Orleans.  Why  hybrid  ?  Is  it  be- 
cause it  was  inhabited  only  by  mulattoes  and  raulattress- 
es?  Or  is  it  in  anticipation  of  what  Mr.  Cable  hopes  it  to 
l)ecome  when  black  men  will  marry  white  women,  and  white 
men  marry  blacks.  Shortly  after  their  arrival  all  the  immi- 
grants die  of  yellow  fever,  except  James  Frowenfeld.  This 
is,  by  the  by,  another  poor  invitation  to  strangers  to  come 
to  Louisiana ! 

The  two  representative  families  of  Louisiana — the  very  best 
-:-the  cream  of  the  cream — the  elite  of  the  elite — as  manufac- 
tured by  Mr.  Cable,  are  the  Fuseliers  de  Grandissime  and  the 
(Irapion  Nancannous.    The  first  Graiulissime,  a  French  oftlcer 
ot  noble  birth,  married  a  ragged   squaw,  born  in  a  "  royal 
hovel,*^  to  use  the  very  words  of  Mr.  Cable,  and  the  queen  ot 
a  very  small  tribe  ot  Indians  named  **  Tchoupitoulas,''  who 
<lwelt  near  the  site  on  which  now  stands  the  Crescent  City. 
His  hybrid  son  marries  a  lady  of  rank,  a  widow  without  chil- 
dren, transported  to  Louisiana  by  virtue  of  a  lettre  dc  cachet, 
that  is  an  onler  of  arrest  in  the  name  (»f  the  King  without 
assigning  any  reason  for  it.    The  author  adds  that  she  was  of 
inniamed  bloo<l.     If  her   blood  was  so''unkiu)wn   that  it  was 
even  without  a  name,  how  could  she  be  reckoned  a  lady  of 
rank  ?    This  is  one  of  a  million  of  absurdities  to  be  picked  by 
any   boy  of  onlinary  common   sense  in   Mr.  Cable's  master 
])iece  of  brica-brac  composition  yclept  "Grandissimes." 

The  first  of  the  Grapion  Xancannous  is  also  a  French  officer 
of  noble  birth.  "He  took,**  says  Mr.  Cable,  <*  a  most  excellent 
Avife  from  the  first  cargo  of  house  of  correction  girls.^  Of 
course,  a  most  excellent  wife !  Nothing  else  could  beex])ecteil 
from  Mr.  Cable,  whose  aim,  through  his  whole  book,  is  to 
vilHfy  what  is  reputed  noble,  and  to  ennoble  what  is  re]mted 
vile.  The  son  of  the  officer  who  had  so  judiciously  chosen  "  a 
most  excellent  wife  ^  from  among  a  gang  of  dissolute  women, 
married  under  the  admiinstration  of  the  Marcpiis  of  Vaudreuil 
one  of  the  "  casket  girls,''  that  is,  one  of  the  girls  transported 


2?i 

to  Louisiana,  each  one  with  a  small  box  or  casket  containing 
tlio  8(;anty  a])parel  with  whicli  they  were  provided  by  the  gov- 
ernment. Mr.  Cable,  who  has  an  irresistible  passion  for  ab- 
surdities,  makes  of  that  girl  a  Huguenot,  unaccountably 
mixed  with  Catholic  women  sent  to  the  Ursuline  Nuns,  under 
M'hose  care  they  were  to  remain  until  married.  The  learned 
author  should  have  condescended  to  explain  liow  it  hapi)ened 
that  the  same  government  by  which  the  introduction  of  llu- 
giienot»  into  Ijouisiana  was  expressly  prohibited,  had  by  a 
strange  exception,  jncked  up  one,  given  her  the  clothes  she 
needed,  and  packed  her  off  to  the  address  of  nuns  under 
whose  wing  she  was  to  be  placed,  until  provided  with  a  hus- 
band. If  these  two  families,  or  the  like  of  them,  constituted 
the  l)eRt  ones  of  the  ancient  population,  what  must  have  been 
tlie  composition  of  those  of  an  inferior  class ! 

In  connei!tion  with  these  marriages,  Mr.  Cable  remarks: 
"Thus  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  of  the  Delta  of  the  Mississippi 
took  with  Gallic  ret;klessness  their  wives  and  moot  wives  from 
the  ill  si)ecimens  ol  three  races."  Gallic  recklessness  in  choos- 
ing wives  I  Mr.  Cable  quotes  this  Gallic  recklessness  ns  if  it 
were  someihing  proverbial.  Why  this  gratuitous  insult  to  a 
whole  nation  ?  Is  it  because  the  French  have  incurred  the 
guilt  in  his  eyes  of  having  procreated  the  hated  Creole  ?  But 
it  is  not  the  only  passage  of  the  book  in  which  he  shows  him- 
self af!1icte<l  with  gallophobia. 

What  could  he  those  three  races  from  the  ill  specimens  of 
which  tlie  Pilgrim  Fathers  of  tlie  Mississi.ipi  Delta  took  their 
wives  with  Gallic  recklessness  ?  There  were  no  other  racres  at 
that  time  than  the  Indian,  the  negro,  and  the  French.  What 
can  he  mean  by  the  i7/  specimens  *of  these  three  races?  Tt 
must  l)e  the  least  rirtuoutt  of  the  Indian  squaws,  tlie  black 
wenches  and  the  French  women.  This  becomes  quite  serious, 
for  it  is  not  an  assertion  placed  at  random  on  the  lips  of  some 
imaginary  cliaracter,  but  it  is  the  author  himself  who  speaks 
— and  that  author  is  a  Louisianiau  by  birth — one  who  claims 
to  know  tlioroughly  the  jMipulation  of  which  he  writes.  This 
assertion  is  not  confined  to  a  work  of  fiction,  but  it  is  repeated 


24 

by  him  in  a  historical  article  which  he  has  contributed  to  the- 
Encyclopedia  Britannica.  Among  other  things,  he  says :  "  A- 
few  years  after  its  founding  New  Orleans  was  little  more  than 
a  squalid  village  of  deported  galley  slaves."  Whence  his  an- 
thority  for  this  sweeping  assertion  T  I  can  ftirni3li  Mr.  Cable 
with  a  list  of  the  first  settlers  in  New  Orleans.  There  is  not 
one  galley  slave  among  them. 

Coming  to  much  later  times,  he  further  says  in  that  great 
work,  the  Encyclopedia  Britannica,  which  is  to  meet  the  eyes 
ot  the  whole  world :  "  The  pestilence  of  yellow  fever — the 
plague  of  the  Gulf— made  of  New  Orleans  one  of  its  most 
famous  ambuscades,  and  the  provincialism  and  lethargy  of  an 
isolated  and  indolent  civilization  has  allowed  this  last  unfor- 
tunate condition  to  remain  uncorrected.'^  Thus  Mr.  Cable 
proclaims  to  the  world,  in  the  face  of  our  Board  of  Health,  that 
New  Orleans  continues  to  be  one  of  the  most  famous  ambus- 
cades of  yellow  fever ;  that  nothing  has  been  done  to  modify, 
that  "  unfortunate  condition,  and  that  the  provincialism 
and  lethargy  of  our  isolated  and  indolent  population,"  has 
"  changed  a  port  that  had  promised  to  become  one  of  the 
greatest  in  the  world  into  a  monument  of  golden  possibilities 
dwarfed  by  unforeseen  and  overpowering  disadvantages." 
We  cannot  trace  in  this  portrait  of  a  mother  the  hand  of  a 
loving  son. 

I  will  quote,  without  ex)mment,  from  the  Encyclopedia  two 
other  passages :  **  The  famous  carnival  displays  ot  NewOrleans 
mark  one  of  the  victories  of  Spanish  -  American  over  North 
American  tastes,  and  probably  owe  mainly  to  the  Americain 
their  i)retentious  dignity,  and  to  the  Creole  their  more  legitim- 
ate harlequin  frivolity."  In  his  intensifying  paroxysms  of  ma- 
niac hostility,  he  goes  on,  sayirg:  "  By  the  exo<lus  of  West 
Indian  Creoles  in  1H()9,  New  Orleans  immediately  doubled  its 
]>opulati<)n  ;  the  place  natyraUy  and  easily  became  the  one 
stronghold  of  Latin -American  idea«  in  the  Unite<l  States,  a 
harbor  of  contrabandists,  (Tuadeloupian  pirates,  and  Simnish- 
American  revolutionists  and  filibusters." 


25 

Tlion^  arc  still  living  iiuiny  descendantH  of  tboso  ril{,a'iin 
iatlier«  of  tlio  delta  of  tlio  MissiHwippi  who  choso  their  wiveH, 
ill  preference,  arnonjr  the  most  abaiuloaed  of  the  Indian  wo- 
men, netjiVHses  and  French  girls  o^  ill-reimtei  I  am  sure  that 
there  cannot  be  hero  a  woman'H  heart,  or  a  man's  heait,  who 
will  not  reH]>ond  to  mine  when  I  say  that  it  is  tht»  sacred  dnty 
of  those  descendants  and  of  the  numerous  Americans  and  Eu- 
ropeans allied  to  them,  to  jtrotect  the  reputation  of  those  an- 
cestors who  cannot  conje  out  of  their  graves  to  face  and  refute 
this  defamation.  It  must  be  kept  in  mind  that  Mr.  Cable 
does  not  allude  to  the  colonists  of  the  lowest  <5laws,  but  es])eci- 
ally  to  those  of  the  highest— to  those  whose  genealogical  trees, 
acconling  to  his  own  ex])ressiona,  "  were  of  the  tallest  in 
France."  Mr.  ('able  slioidd  Im^  called  upon  to  name  at  least  a 
single  one  of  our  good  and  old  families  that  falls  within  the 
blighting  nidius  of  his  description.  If  he  cannot,  he  will 
stand  convicted  of  having  nuiliciously  slandered  a  pop\datiou 
that  seems  to  l>e  the  object  of  his  intense  hatred. 

After  njy  digressing  allusion  to  Mr.  Cable's  sentinuMits  as 
ox])ressed  in  the  Kncydopedia  liritannica,  I  return  to  the 
(trandissimes.  The  Huguenot  girl  with  whom  you  Inw  been' 
made  acfpudnted  had  proved  rebellious  to  the  aufhority  of 
the  Ursulines,  and  they  had  referred  the  case  to  the  gover- 
nor, Manpds  of  Vaudreuil,  who  tells  the  girl  that  there  is 
110  such  thing  as  momlity,  honor,  principle  and  religion  in  the 
world,  not  even  in  the  King  of  France,  not  even  in  the  arch- 
bislio])s  and  cardinals;  that  it  is  all  a  farce,  particularly  in 
Ijouisiana ;  and  what  he  says  is  fully  sanctioned  by  the  Mar- 
quise. This  is  a  monstrous  ])erversion  of  the  historical  char* 
acter  of  the  Marquis,  and  why  f  Probably  to  give  Mr.  Cable 
the  opportunity  of  nniking  this  remark:  *^Thls  is  the  way 
they  talkeil  In  Xew  Orleans  in  those  days.  If  you  care  to  un* 
derstaud  why  liouisiuna  has  grown  up  so  out  of  Joint,  note 
the  tone  of  those  who  goverened  her  in  the  middle  of  the  last 
century."  So  it  »ecni8  that  we  are  out  ot  joint,  and  we  shall 
continue  to  In*  in  that  disjointed  condition  ns  long  n^  we  re« 


2ii 

fuse  to  adopt  the  radical  modifications  of  society  proposeil  by 
Mr.  Cable. 

The  first  thing:  to  be  done,  according  to  Mr.  Cable's  recom» 
niendations,  to  prevent  Louisiana  from  continuing  to  grow  out 
of  .joint,  is  to  do  away  with  the  chronic  pride  of  the  Creoles,  of 
■which  here  are  some  specimens  that  are  peculiar  to  Louisiana, 
and  never  heartl  of  anywhere  else.  For  instance,  says  Mr. 
Cable,  a  Creole,  as  in  the  case  of  Agricola  Fuselier,  will  siir- 
render  a  plantation  and  negroes  rather  than  incur  the  re- 
proach of  having  won  it  unfairly  at  cards,  and  rather  than 
stand  in  the  light  of  the  world  with  a  shallow  of  suspicion 
over  his  name— a  specimen  of  pride  No.  1.  A  Creole  woman, 
as  in  the  case  of  Madam  Nancanou,  will  sacrifice  everything 
she  possesses  and  reduce  herself  to  poverty  rather  than  disa- 
vow a  debt  of  honor  acknowledged  by  her  husband— pride 
No.  2.  A  Creole  gentleman  always  stands  on  the  punctilio  of 
honor  with  which,  says  Mr.  Cable,  in  his  peculiar  style,  "  lie 
anoints  himself  from  head  to  foot,"  rather  than  adopt  new 
i<leas  that  would  develop  his  financial  resources — pride  No.  3. 
"  Do  not  credit  a  creole  woman  when  she  pretends  to  be  in 
comfortable  circumstances ;  she  may  at  that  very  moment  be 
starving." — pride  No.  4.  This  is  what  Mr.  Cable  calls  a  pre- 
posterous, apathetic,  fantastic  i)ride,  as  lethargic  and  ferocious 
as  an  alligator,  and  suicidil  I  Suicidal !  I  like  the  word.  I 
like  the  meaning  he  gives  to  it.  True,  it  is  suici<lal  accordiiig 
to  Mr.  Cable's  code  of  morality,  to  immolate  self-interest  to 
conscience ;  it  is  suicidal  to  relinquish  a  dollar  rather  than  do 
what  one  thinks  to  be  mean.  It  is  suicidal  not  to  follow  lago's 
advice  tolloderigo,  "Put  money  in  thy  jjocket;  I  tell  thee,  put 
money  in  thy  ixKJket" — by  fair  or  foul  means.  Well !  The 
Creoles  accept  as  comi)liments  what  Mr.  Cable  intends  as  re- 
])roaches,  and  as  they  wish  to  recipro<^ate  with  due  politeness, 
I  assume  the  responsibility  of  declaring  openly  in  their  name 
that  they  do  not  believe  him  susceptible  of  any  preposterous, 
apathetic,  fantastic,  and  suicidal  pride  in  business  transac- 
tions and  lucrative  speculations ;  that  they  do  not  suspect  him 
of  being  lethargic  where  selfintorest  speaks  even  in  the  fi*e- 


27 

blest  voico ;  nor  as  hoxng  as  fei-ocioua  n«  an  allij^ator  on  cer- 
tain pnnctilios  recognized  by  a  beniglited  worUl. 

Houori^  do  Grandissime,  educated  in  Pafm,  and  tlie  Arst 
merchant  of  New  Orleans,  whom  Mr.  Cable  represents  as  a 
demi-god  when  compared  with  the  other  Creoles,  being  on 
horseback,  meets  the  immigrant  Frowenfehl,  who  was  footing 
it  in  the  vicinity  of  the  city.  They  engage  in  conversation, 
and  the  yellow  lever  convalescent  consults  Ilonore  as  to  the 
best  way  of  making  a  living.  This  perfection  of  a  Creole  gen- 
tlemen informs  Frowenfeld,  in  substance,  that  he  is  in  a  coun- 
try  where  principle  and  virtue  do  not  i)ay.  lie  njust  howl 
with  the  wolves  and  l)ecome  as  practical  in  dishonesty  as  the 
whole  population  and  look  at  everything  as  merchandise,  as 
he  himself  does — he,  Honor<5  <le  Grandissime !  He  impresses 
ui>on  Frowenfeld  the  necessity  of  his  transforming  himself 
like  all  those  who  come  to  Louisiana — "  they  hold  out  a  little 
while;  a  very  litle,  and  they  assimilate  to  the  rest.**  At  last, 
Honor^  de  Grandissime  goes  so  far  in  his  inroads  on  propriety, 
his  instructions  l)ecorne  so  oOeusivO;  that  the  immigrant  pro- 
tests against  it  with  an  indignant  eiirnestness  that  made,  says 
Mr.  Cable,  "  the  Creole's  horse  drop  the  grass  from  his  teeth 
and  wlu»el  half  round."  But  the  men;hant  retained  his  gentle 
com|M>sure.  Wherefore  it  must  be  admitteil  that  the  horso 
prove<l  himself  a  much  more  moral  l>eing  than  his  rider,  an<l 
I  must  agree  with  Mr.  Cable,  when  he  sarcastically  remarks  of 
Hoi»or6  and  Frowenfeld :  »*  One  was  a  very  raw  imported  ma- 
terial  for  an  excellent  man,  and  the  other  a  strikir.g  exponent 
of  a  unique  land  and  |>eople''— as  invented  and  patented  by 
Mr.  Cable. 

Frowenfeld  is  not  corrupted,  however,  by  Honoi-^,  and  rt». 
taining  all  the  primitive  indeiHjndence  of  his  opinions,  W- 
comes  a  druggist.  Although  he  is  a  great  leveler,  like  M/. 
Cable,  whose  moral  and  intellectual  personification  he  seems 
intended  to  l)e,  the  Creoles,  whom  he  never  ceases  to  find  fault 
with,  get  into  the  habit  of  congregating  at  his  shop  to  discuss 
the  questions  of  the  day.  The  author  repi-esents  their  oppo- 
sition  to  the  cession  as  intense.  .  It  seems  that  they  had  but 


28 

two  ideas  at  the  time;  one  was,  to  defraud  the  United  States 
of  as  much  of  the  public  lands  as  possible  by  manufacturing 
false  titles,  and  the  other,  to  prevent  the  introduction  of  the 
Enjjlish  language  into  Louisiana,  as  they  would  prefer  to  "eat 
dogs"  than  to  speak  it.  As  to  the  public  lands,  whether  it 
was  finally  Louisiana  that  robbed  the  United  States,  or  the 
United  States  that  robbed  Louisiana,  1  leave  Mr.  Cable  to  de- 
termine as  he  may  please.  But,  as  to  the  English  language, 
I  must  object  to  his  contradicting  himself  so  manifestly  about 
the  alleged  hostility  of  the  Creoles  to  its  introduction.  He 
forgets  that  he  has  represented  the  Creoles  as  being  so  pas- 
sionately fond  of  it  long  before  the  cession,  that  even  in  the 
intimacy  of  family  intercourse  they  had  almost  entirely 
substituted  for  the  Frencih  language  of  their  ancestors,  and 
for  the  sweet  modulations  of  the  composite  dialect  of  their 
slaves,  the  rough-hewn,  coarse  and  unmusical  jargon  of  the 
American  negro — which,  however,  they  had  never  heard  at 
the  time,  and  tlierefore  could  not  have  learned.  But  this 
absurdity  not  being  sufficiently  strong,  Mr.  Cable  makes  them 
cling  to  the  broken,  mutilated,  africanized  English  of  the 
hlaclx  wmn,  and  reject  with  rage  the  importation  of  the  genuine 
])ure  English  of  the  white  man.  It  is  a  singular  contra^iiction 
which  could  not  escape  the  attention  of  Mr.  Cable.  How  is  it 
that  he  allowed  it  to  stand  ?  Was  it  his  secret  int*»ntion  to 
]>roduce  the  impression  on  his  readers  in  his  own  sly  and  co- 
vert  wavs  that  the  Creoles  are  instinctivelv  attracted,  bv  a 
sort  of  magnetic  influence,  to  every  thing  that  is  low,  base 
and  impure,  as  a  natural  effect  of  that  Gallic  recklessness 
which,  since  the  foun^lation  of  tlie  colony,  was  the  cause  of 
their  ignoble  descent  from  the  ill  specimens  of  three  races — 
Indian,  African  and  French  prostitutes?  Considering  this 
agglomerated  and  ever-ex]mnding  heritage  of  viciously  mixe<l 
blood  that  still  festers  in  the  veins  of  more  thnn  two  hundred 
thousand  of  his  fellow-citizens,  consideiing  that,  in  conse- 
quence of  it,  Louisiana  continues  to  be  *'out  of  joint,"  as  he 
says,  and  to  perpetrate  such,  iniquities  as  are  enumerated  in 
his  *'  Freedman's  Case  in  Equity,"  Mr.  Cable  must  have  felt 


29 

himself  justified,  at  least  iu  his  own  mind,  wlien  he  shook  the 
dust  of  our  streets  from  his  virtuous  and  indignant  shoes,  aid 
publicly  declared  that  the  home  ot  his  choice — the  home  of 
his  heart — was  in  a  far  distant  and  more  pure  region. 

The  Creoles,  to  come  out  purified  and  clean  out  of  their  na« 
tive  swamps,  must,  according  to  Mr.  Cable's  mandate,  give 
up,  not  only  their  ferocious  alligator  pride,  but  also  their  mule 
obstinacy,  which  he  thus  illustrates :  The  Creoles  who  used 
to  assemble  at  the  Frowenfeld's  shop  talked  al)out  the  cession 
of  Louisiana  in  the  most  foolish  and  incoherent  manner.    It 
could  not  be  otherwise.    It  would  have  been  unnatural  for  a 
Creole  to  talk  common  sense.    Frowenfeld,  in  his  unboundea 
benevolence,  attempts  to  enlighten  them.     He  preeents  to 
them  "excellent  arguments"  to  remove  their  deep-rooted 
prejudices  and  their  ill  founded  apprehensions.    But,  "  unfor- 
tunately.'' says  Mr.  Cable,  "  those  arguments  gave  more  heat 
than  light."    If  this  was  the  case,  is  it  astonishing  that  those 
arguments  produced  a  more  sudorific  than  convincing  effect! 
Mr.  Cable  further  informs  his  readers  that  those  excellent  ar- 
guments were  "  merciless  f  that  their  principles  were  "  not 
only  lofty  to  dizziness,  but  precipitous,"  and  "  their  heights 
unoccupied,   and,  to  the  common   sight,  unattainable."    In 
consequence,    "they    provoked    hostility  and    resentment." 
Such  is  the  indictment.    Now  for  the  defence.    Were  the 
ci-eoles  to  be   blamed  for  not  understanding  arguments  so 
lofty  that  only  a  condor  or  an  eagle  could  have  risen  to  their 
cloud-capped  altitude  ?    Who  in  this  assembly  would  not  be 
thrown  into  a  violent  state  of  exasperation,  should  anybody 
assail  him  with  "  merciless  arguments,"  with  rocky  principles, 
"not  only  lotYy  to  dizziness,  but  precipitous,"  towering  to 
"  unoccupied  heights,  and  to  common  sight,  unattainable  T 
Such  an  Alpine  scenery  of  arguments  and  principles  might 
charm  the  eyes  of  mountaineers,  but  could  not  be  relished  by 
the  natives  of  the  plains,  prairies  and  s^ami^s  of  Louisiana. 
It  was  Frowenfeld's  fault,  if  not  understood.    His  balloon  flew 
too  high  above  the  flat  intellect  of  those  whom  he  addressed 
ill  1803. 


30 

Mr.  Cable  himself  fell  into  the  same  error  in  the  present 
year,  1885,  when  in  his  "  Freedman's  Case  in  Equity,"  he  came 
down  upon  the  South  with  an  avalanche  of  "  merciless  argu- 
ments'' that  threatene<l  to  crush  us  back  into  something  worse 
than  the  black  days  of  reconstruction ;  with  a  hail-storm  of 
"  principles  so  lofty  "  that  they  made  us  dizzy— '*  principles  so 
precipitous"  that  we  looked  at  them  with  affright— "principles 
of  such  unoccupied  and  unattainable  heights,"  that  we  refused 
to  climb  them  up  with  him,  and  run  the  risk  of  breaking  our 
necks  by  tailing  into  the  precipice  of  miscegenation.  Other- 
wise,  he  might  have  had  a  better  chance  ot  success  in  huck- 
stering his  universal  panacea,  labeled  on  the  bottle :  **  Social 
and  conjugal  fusion  of  the  blacks  and  the  whites." 

I  have  only  glanced  over  a  book  com])08ed  of  443  pages. 
Neither  time  nor  my  inclination  permit  me  to  enter  into  a 
more  detailed  analysis.    Sufhce  it  to  say  that,  from  the  begin- 
ning to  the  end,  this  work  represents  the  whole  Creole  popula- 
tio!i  as  the  basest  and  the  most  stupid  that  ever  crawled  in 
the  mud  of  this  earth.    Take,  for  instance,  the  two  best  speci- 
mens among  them,  as  delineated  by  Mr.  Cable :   Honors  de 
Grandissime  and  Madame  de  Grapion  Nancannou,  the  refined 
par  excellence.    I  have  already  laid  before  you  the  scene  l>e- 
tween    Honor^  and  the  8Ui)er-honest   immigrant,  OrandwHon. 
Frowenfeld,  without  even  forgetting  the  horse  that  dropped 
the  grass  from  his  teeth  and  wheeled  half  round  from  the 
sudden  shock  which  the  conversatian  gave  to  his  too  sensi- 
tive nerves,  thus  participating  in  the   immigrant's  indigna- 
tion.   Another  scene — and  this  Honor^  ae  Grandissime,  the 
most  scrupulous,  the  most  esteemed  merchant  of  New  Orleans, 
will  appear  to  you  in  all  the  splendor  which  Mr.  ('able  wishes 
to  give  to  his  character.    He  is  on  the  eve  of  breaking  down, 
when  his  colored  brother — illegitimate,  of  course,  and  named 
also  Honor^  de  Grandissime.  to  whom  their  common  father 
had  illegally  l)equeathed  an  immense  legacy  which,  however, 
was  not  contested  by  the  legitimate  heirs — proposes  to  him  to 
put  all  his  fortune  in  the  house  and  save  it  from  bankruptcy, 
l)rovide<l  it  l>e  henceforth  openly  carried  on  as  a  commercial 


♦ 

firm  under  their  associiited  names— tluis  constituting  a  novel 
partner  ship,  the  partnership  of  bastardy  and  legitimacy,  tlio 
l)artnersliip  of  black  and  white.  This  most  distinguished  of 
all  the  Creoles  greedily  accepts  the  proposition  in  these  words : 
**  Oo  just  a  condition — such  mere  justice,  ought  to  be  an  easy 
condition,''  and,  the  legitimate  white  son,  "lifting  up  his 
glance  reverently"  to  the  colored  bastard  son,  his  brother, 
further  says :  "  My  verj'  right  to  exist  comes  after  yours ; 
you  are  the  elder." 

Once  before,  Honor^,  the  colored  man,  had  said  to  Honore, 
the  white  man,  in  the  deepest  tone  of  affliction :  "  Your  are  the 
lawful  son  of  Numa  Grandissime.  I  had  no  right  to  be  born." 
The  white  brother  had  "quickly"  replied:  "By  the  laws  of 
man  it  may  be;  but  by  the  hiws  of  God's  justice,  you  are  the 
lawful  son,  and  It  is  1  that  should  not  have  been  born."  Here 
we  have,  to  use  a  common  expression,  •*  the  milk  of  the  cocoa- 
nut."  Here  we  have  the  animus  that  inspired  the  book  and 
thepuri)ose  for  which  it  was  written.  The  full  meaning  of 
this  paragraph  can  be  made  apparent  in  a  few  words ;  and 
tliat  meaning  is  startling.  According  to  the  new  doctrine 
which  it  offers  to  our  approbation,  the  black  concubine  of  a 
white  man  is,  if  not  by  the  laws  of  man,  certainly  by  the  laws 
of  God's  justice,  a  lawtul  wife,  and  the  colored  child  resulting 
from  this  intercourse  is  legitimate.  If  that  white  man,  seeing 
the  sinful  error  of  his  way,  subsequently  marries  a  white  wo- 
man, "she  is  by  the  laws  of  God's  justice,  if  not  by  the  laws  of 
man,  a  paramour,  and  her  child  is  a  bastard."  So  much  for 
the  Honorable  Honor6  de  Grandissime,  whom  Mr.  Cable  rep- 
resents as  the  t)est  and  most  intelligent  of  all  the  Creoles. 

Ah  to  Madame  de  Grapion  Nancanou,  whom  Mr.  Cable  de- 
.scribe«  as  the  pearl  of  pearls,  and  incomparably  superior  to 
the  rest  of  her  sex  in  Louisiana,  she  is  silly,  undignified  and 
not  overburdened  with  too  heavy  a  load  of  high-toned  moral- 
ity ;  she  rubs  the  sill  of  her  door  with  certain  plants,  and  she 
besmears  her  floor  with  molasses  to  secure  good  luck.  She  is 
the  intimate  friend  of  the  colored  queen  of  the  Voudous,  and  a 
Vondou  herself-a  Christian  and  a  Voudou— a  worshiper  of 


32 

Christ  and  of  the  serpent  at  the  same  time.  Mr.  Gable  is  fond 
of  mixtures.  She  divides  with  that  queen  of  the  Voudous  a 
purse  of  gold  purporting  to  liave  been  sent  by  the  Devil.  At 
midnight  she  ri^es  to  invoke  the  demon  of  the  Voudous,  and 
after  having  promised  him  a  libation  of  champagne  for  the 
next  day,  she  creeps  into  bed  aiid  offsets  this  peccadillo  by 
saying  her  prayers  under  her  blanket.  It  is  impossible  to 
read  of  her  treatment  of  Governor  Claiborne  on  the  public 
square  in  front  of  the  Cathedral,  without  coming  to  the  conclu- 
sion that  she  was  better  qualified  to  occupy  a  stall  in  the  fish 
market  than  a  seat  in  a  lady's  saloon. 

By  the  by,  Mr.  Cable,  who  seems  to  entertain  as  much  aver- 
sion to  truth  as  to  Creoles,  says  that  the  colored  queen  whom 
Madame  Nancanou  had  taken  to  her  bosom,  was  noted  for  the 
**  chaste  austerity  "  with  which  she  performed  the  rites  of  the 
Voudous.  Well !  It  is  generally  believ;id  here  that  the  rites 
of  the  Voudous  are  so  disgusting  that  no  modern  language 
among  civilized  nations  could  be  used  to  describe  the  **  chaste 
austerity  ^  of  that  worship  of  hideous  indecency,  and  I  am 
sure  that  there  are  few  of  our  negresses,  among  the  most  de- 
praved, who  would  not  think  themselves  grievously  insulted 
by  Mr.  Cable,  if  accused  by  him  of  being  Voudous. 

As  I  wish  to  be  fair  and  just  to  Mr.  Cable,  I  must,  in  con- 
cluding, debit  him  for  making  at  last  a  sort  of  charitable  con- 
cession to  the  Creoles.  At  the  end  of  his  book.  p.  436,  he 
says:  "Under  the  gentle  influence  of  a  higher  civilization, 
their  old  Spanish  colonial  ferocity  was  gradually  absorbed  by 
the  growth  of  better  traits.  To-day,  almost  all  the  savagery 
that  Q3iU  justly  be  charged  against  Louisiana  must  -  strange 
to  say — be  laid  at  the  door  of  the  Americain.  The  Creole 
character  has  been  diluted  and  sweetened."  The  ferocity  of 
Mr.  Cable's  attacks  against  the  creole  population  having  at 
last  become  also  diluted  and  sweetened,  I  am  glad  to  declare 
that  now  I  wash  my  hands  of  him,  and  making  my  last  bow 
to  that  amiable  gentleman,  I  turn  him  over  to  the  tender  mer- 
cies of  the  "  American  savagery  "  that  is,  to-day,  almost  ex- 
clusively guilty  of  all  the  atrocities  and  infamies  perpetrated 
in  Louisiana. 


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